Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

192 JARLS OF ORKNEY.
VIII. Sigurt II., surnamed Dan Digre, or the Stout, and also known as " Sigurt
Lodvinson," married "Thora," only child of Hakon the Good, by whom he had
three sons, Somerled, Brusei, and Eynor. He was very powerful, and besides
holding Catenes against the King of Scotland, is said to have ruled Moray,
Ross, Suderland, and the Dales.
Being challenged by " Finleikr-jarl," Maormer of the sons of Croeb (Cromarty
and part of Ross), to fight a battle with him on a certain day in the Scidensian
Marshes (the mossy ground near Spittal Hill), he first gave back to his people of
Orkney their udal rights, which had been resigned to Turf Eynor in 893 ; and
receiving from his mother " Andna " a charmed standard, on which she had em-
broidered a raven with spread wings and open beak, which was destined ever to
bring victory to the chief, but death to the standard-bearer, he defeated Earl
Finliec after losing three standard-bearers. Besides the contest for power, there
had been blood between their houses for several generations — Sigurt, the first
Earl of Orkney, having killed Melbridg-Tonn, the father or grandfather of Fin-
lieck-jarl, near Burghead, and having afterwards fallen a victim to the envenomed
tooth of his dead foe. Another Melbridg, the brother of Finliec, was the father
of Macbeth, whose name Torfaeus translates into " Comes Magbraddus." " Mal-
bridg " means the servant of St Bride or St Bridget, a favourite saint in those
days, showing that those Maormers were Christians — converts of St Columba —
whilst our ancestors of Orkney were still pagans.
In Burnt Njal we find as follows : —
Pedigree of the Earls of Orkney to this date.
" Sigurt was the name of an Earl who ruled over the Orkneys.
(Xd.* at Clontarf, A.D. 1014.)
He was the son of Hlodver or Lodovic,
The son of Thorfin, the Skull-splitter,
The son of Turf Eynor (died ante 942),
The son of Rognvald, Earl of Mceren — Xd. 898,
The son of Eistein the Noisy."
And again, " Kari -f- was one of Sigurt's body-guard, and was gathering scatts
from the southern isles for Earl Gille. And the Earls Hundi and Melsnate
killed Hallward of Thraswich, Earl Sigurt's brother-in-law. So Sigurt gathered
a large and mighty host to drive those earls out of these realms, and they came
south to Katenes. The earl 'had these realms in Scotland — Moray and Ross,
Suderland, and the Dales. There came to him men from those realms and said
* Killed. t An Icelander.